Following the 2017 YMCA Short Course National Championships in Greensboro, The YMCA has released the qualifying times for the 2018 Short Course Championships. The qualifying period for these championships began on March 1, 2017 and will continue through the entry date for the 2018 championships.
Among the notable changes are the women’s freestyle events. The new qualifying standards in the 50, 100 and 200 yard freestyle distances are all faster than in previous years. The most dramatic changes in the women’s events are found in the 200 freestyle, 100 backstroke and 200 butterfly, where the new standards dropped a half second from the old.
All of the changes in the women’s qualifying times:
| Event | Old | New |
| 50 Freestyle | 24.69 | 24.59 |
| 100 Freestyle | 53.59 | 53.49 |
| 200 Freestyle | 1.56.49 | 1.55.99 |
| 100 Backstroke | 59.49 | 58.99 |
| 100 Butterfly | 59.09 | 58.99 |
| 200 Butterfly | 2.11.99 | 2.11.49 |
These new qualifying times clearly intend to control the number of swimmers as a majority of the events that have sped up qualifying times are the events where the number of competitors has increased year over year. For instance, the 2017 women’s 200 freestyle had 179 athletes. In 2016, that number was just 127.
On the men’s side it was the distance freestyle events that saw the most change. Both the 500 and 1000 qualifying times dropped as well as the 100 backstroke and 800 freestyle relay. Each of the distance standards dropped dramatically by at least a second.
The total list of changes on the men’s side:
| Event | Old | New |
| 500 Freestyle | 4.45.49 | 4.44.49 |
| 1000 Freestyle | 9.48.29 | 9.46.99 |
| 100 Backstroke | 54.29 | 54.19 |
| 800 Free Relay | 7.09.99 | 7.07.99 |
In similar fashion to the women, the events that changed most dramatically tended to have an increased number of swimmers. The men’s 800 freestyle relay had just 38 teams competing. In 2017, that number rose to 44.
All of the qualifying times that were changed were in short course yard but the YMCA announced that it has adopted new conversion factors that will have an impact on the SCM and LCM qualifying times. All SCM and LCM times are converted from the original SCY times. The conversion factors are:
- Yard to SCM = 1.11
- 400/500, 800/1000 = .875
- 1650/1500 = .997
- Long Course = 1.02 * SCM
The complete new qualifying times can be found below:
| Women | Men | |||||
| LCM | SCM | SCY | SCY | SCM | LCM | |
| 27.95 | 27.40 | 24.59 | 50 free | 22.09 | 24.51 | 25.01 |
| 1:00.67 | 59.48 | 53.49 | 100 free | 48.19 | 53.49 | 54.56 |
| 2:11.88 | 2:09.30 | 1:55.99 | 200 free | 1:45.39 | 1:56.98 | 1:59.32 |
| 4:34.61 | 4:29.22 | 5:06.99 | 500/400m free | 4:44.49 | 4:09.80 | 4:14.79 |
| 9:20.48 | 9:09.49 | 10:27.99 | 1000/800m free | 9:46.99 | 8:34.75 | 8:45.04 |
| 17:50.82 | 17:29.83 | 17:32.99 | 1650/1500m free | 16:27.29 | 16:24.32 | 16:44.01 |
| 1:07.35 | 1:06.03 | 58.99 | 100 back | 54.19 | 1:00.26 | 1:01.46 |
| 2:24.91 | 2:22.06 | 2:07.99 | 200 back | 1:56.99 | 2:09.85 | 2:12.45 |
| 1:17.20 | 1:15.69 | 1:08.19 | 100 breast | 1:01.09 | 1:07.80 | 1:09.16 |
| 2:47.55 | 2:44.26 | 2:27.99 | 200 breast | 2:13.39 | 2:28.06 | 2:31.02 |
| 1:06.90 | 1:05.58 | 58.99 | 100 fly | 53.19 | 59.04 | 1:00.22 |
| 2:29.43 | 2:26.50 | 2:11.49 | 200 fly | 1:58.99 | 2:12.07 | 2:14.72 |
| 2:27.85 | 2:24.95 | 2:10.59 | 200 IM | 1:58.89 | 2:11.96 | 2:14.60 |
| 5:13.94 | 5:07.79 | 4:37.29 | 400 IM | 4:14.99 | 4:43.03 | 4:48.69 |
| 1:52.86 | 1:50.65 | 1:39.69 | 200 free relay | 1:29.49 | 1:39.33 | 1:41.32 |
| 4:04.09 | 3:59.30 | 3:35.59 | 400 free relay | 3:13.89 | 3:35.21 | 3:39.52 |
| 8:50.99 | 8:40.57 | 7:48.99 | 800 free relay | 7:07.99 | 7:57.28 | 8:06.83 |
| 2:05.66 | 2:03.19 | 1:50.99 | 200 medley relay | 1:39.99 | 1:50.98 | 1:53.20 |
| 4:32.16 | 4:26.83 | 4:00.39 | 400 medley relay | 3:37.19 | 4:01.08 | 4:05.90 |
The PDF released by YMCA Swimming: 2018ShortCourseQualifyingTimes